This is referring to how effective is the hood to extract the steam and oil from our cooking. The lower the suction power, the cheaper the price, but it will give less effective work.

I've read in some forums that for Malaysian style cooking, we all need suction power more than 1000. Usually,for chimney style hood, the suction power of 1000-1200 is sufficient enough. For filter type, it is better to take more than 1200 suction power since the oil and steam will be collected within the filter.

3. Type of filtering system

Please be aware that we have several types of oil filtering system for hood.

The most common one is oil cup. Where an oil cup will be hanging with the hood and you can see how much oil has been filter within your hood. Once you see the oil, you might want to wash the oil cup as well as the filter to make sure the performance of your hood is at its best.

Second type is mesh filtering. This is a flat type hood but you will need to clean the mesh properly once you feel that the suction and filtering system of your hood is depleting. Oil will be stuck between the mesh filter and there is a proper instruction on how to wash this mesh filter such as soaking it in warm soapy water and cannot use metal sponge for cleaning.

Third filter type that I know is a stainless steel filter as what I am using. It feels this is the most convenient as the cleaning is very easy and no special instruction is needed.